How Safe Is Your Food… From Hijacking?
By Melissa Lind, contributing author
Normally, threats to the food supply chain involve contamination or quality, however in a continuing trend, cargo loads of food and beverages once again topped the list of most stolen commodities.
FreightWatch International, a specialty company that tracks supply chain data, just released the Cargo Theft Threat Assessment report for the first quarter of 2014. The report indicates that the number of food cargo hijacks remains the highest amongst all consumer goods at 21 percent. This is followed by home goods and electronics.
The actual number of thefts has fallen slightly, down five percent from the same period in 2013, but the average value per loss was $207,982. This shows a near 39 percent increase in load value. FreightWatch indicates that numbers for the period covering January to March of 2014 may rise as “delays in incident reporting typically cause measurable increases in theft volumes in the weeks following publication of FreightWatch quarterly reports.”
Supply Chain Visibility Is A Key Part Of Delivering Proof Of Product Integrity
Food cargo value is listed at an average loss of $60,101. This figure is quite low compared to the highest value of average loss — belonging to clothing/shoes, coming in at $943,699. Electronics came in second place with an average loss valued at $421,008. FreightWatch indicated that clothing/shoe cargo load value was so high due to name brand athletic shoes and the high retail value they come along with.
The most common food cargo thefts involved produce, candy, sodas, and flavored waters. Meat has fallen out of the top stolen cargo, possibly due to a reduction in number of meat shipments as overseas demand for meat has increased. California was once again the hot-bed of cargo theft with 27 percent of thefts, followed by Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Illinois. The top five states accounted for 77 percent of thefts nationwide.
There was a large increase in the number of deceptive pickups, 57 percent over the same quarter in 2013. However, the most common location of theft was unsecured parking, particularly at truck stops and the weekend was reported as the most common time for cargo theft to occur. Theft of the entire trailer/container remains the most common type of theft at 85 percent, indicating that the use of track and trace RFID tags placed on outgoing cargo may help enhance security throughout the supply chain.